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HRAR Awarded Proposals

The HRAR program is developed by the Department of Anthropology at The Field Museum in Chicago, in collaboration with the American Research Center in Sofia (ARCS) and with sponsorship from the America for Bulgaria Foundation (ABF). This program encourages scholars to assess the feasibility of an archaeological research project while also promoting the use of innovative methods in their research. The information gathered through research funded by HRAR may then be used to prepare more fully developed research programs. Projects that face severe time constraints because of pressing environmental or social issues may also be considered. The HRAR program promotes international collaboration between scholars from Bulgaria, the Balkans and the US, as well as other nations in Western Europe.

This research project represents the first systematic investigation in Bulgaria of the upland zone (e.g., the Mirkovo Basin) for archaeological remains using aerial reconnaissance techniques and photography. The study takes a diachronic approach, incorporating periods through the 21st century. By using innovative techniques, the research promises to place upland centers within their overall archaeological settlement context. The co-PIs of this project are Boyan Dumanov (New Bulgarian University, Bulgaria) and John Chapman (Durham University, UK).

This project focuses on the identification of flint sources used by prehistoric communities in northwest Bulgaria and northeast Serbia, by means of field survey and archaeometric analyses. The aim of this research is to reconstruct networks of acquisition of raw flint material along the Danube’s southern bank and within its immediate hinterland. The co-PIs for this project are Maria Gurova (Bulgarian National Institute of Archaeology and Museum, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences) and Dušan Borić (Lecturer in Archaeology, Cardiff University, UK).